The light olefins serve as feed materials for the production of numerous chemicals. Light olefins have traditionally been produced through the processes of steam or catalytic cracking. The limited availability and high cost of petroleum sources, however, has resulted in a significant increase in the cost of producing light olefins from such petroleum sources.
The search for alternative materials for light olefin production has led to the use of oxygenates such as alcohols and, more particularly, to the use of methanol, ethanol, and higher alcohols or their derivatives. The oxygenates are often produced from more plentiful sources of raw materials, such as conversion of natural gas to alcohols, or the production of oxygenates from coal. Molecular sieves such as microporous crystalline zeolite and non-zeolitic catalysts, particularly silicoaluminophosphates (SAPO), are known to promote the conversion of oxygenates to hydrocarbon mixtures, particularly hydrocarbon mixtures composed largely of light olefins.
The amounts of light olefins resulting from such processing can be further increased by reacting, i.e., cracking, heavier hydrocarbon products, particularly heavier olefins such as C4 and C5 olefins, to light olefins. For example, commonly assigned, U.S. Pat. No. 5,914,433 to Marker, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a process for the production of light olefins comprising olefins having from 2 to 4 carbon atoms per molecule from an oxygenate feedstock. The process comprises passing the oxygenate feedstock to an oxygenate conversion zone containing a metal aluminophosphate catalyst to produce a light olefin stream. A propylene and/or mixed butylene stream is fractionated from said light olefin stream and cracked to enhance the yield of ethylene (C2H4) and propylene (C3H6) products. This combination of light olefin product and propylene and butylene cracking in a riser cracking zone or a separate cracking zone provides flexibility to the process which overcomes the equilibrium limitations of the aluminophosphate catalyst. In addition, the invention provides the advantage of extended catalyst life and greater catalyst stability in the oxygenate conversion zone.
With the continued demand for light olefins, there is still a demand for further improvements that will result in increased yields, or reductions in processing costs, or equipment costs.